Monday, February 25, 2008

Big Fun in Northfield and the Twin Cities

Here's a nice video (thanks to Griff Wigley) from last Friday's dance at the Armory in Northfield. You can see that Robin Nelson is doing an amazing job of directing a lot (a blizzard? an avalanche?) of energy and the dancers are having a great time. There are even a couple of seconds of rare video of Contratopia at play at the very start. The first half of the video has us playing the classic "Ross' Reel" and the second half finds us playing one of my newer tunes called "Ain't Broke". Griff also has made available an excellent album of photos from the Winter Stomp! Thanks, Griff!

The next day was full of big city fun. Pat made sure that Erik and I were up and out of the house in time to get a good seat at the old-time jam at what I think is the Artist Blend coffee house on University near Raymond. I won't drop names but, once there, we got to play great tunes and hang out with some of the finest old-time musicians anywhere. Great music, great people. Stop by some Saturday morning and see for yourself. Thanks to everyone at the jam for making us feel at home!

A delicious lunch (well, breakfast for Erik) followed at the original Keys restaurant just around the corner. Then we rushed to Patrice's place for an afternoon of rehearsal and learning new tunes. This followed by a light but excellent supper at El Norteno on Lake St.

Saturday night was another fun dance at Tapestry. Bob provided especially fine sound for us and Steve joined us on harmonica for a couple of sets near the end. Robin was our caller for the second night in a row and she did her usual stellar job of keeping things interesting and fun. Best of all we get to return in less than three weeks for both a waltz afternoon and a contra evening.

For the record here is a list of the tune sets that I can remember us playing at one or the other dance. These aren't in order and I don't think we repeated any sets but the first group I think were Friday sets and the second group Saturday ones.

Flowers of Edinburgh (for a teaching dance on Friday, our first ever use of one of my favorite James Oswald tunes)Mason's Apron/Maggie in the Snow/Julia DelaneyAngeline the Baker/Milk Run/LiberationThe Phoenix/Sheehan's/Shenandoah FallsAin't Broke/Two Days to MaineRoss' Reel/Cornutopia/Happy EarsRoad to Bangor/Eager to Please/La Maison de GlaceSandy River Belles/Liza Jane/Rockabye BabyWaitin' for Nancy/Over the WaterfallCalliope House/Booth Shot Lincoln/It Ain't the Heat, It's the Humidity

Dunn Meadow/Canny CrowNail that Catfish to a Tree/Queen's Polka/Reel St. AntoineReel St. Joseph/Star of Munster/2-Legged StoolPalisades/Christmas Past/FairbanksAly on the Plains/Hay to Market/Just 4 GuysSoft Shoulder/Cowboy Jig/All the RageHogwart's Express/Aristocracy/Steady OnSweetbriar/What You Got There/Scandy Twist

You're welcome, John. Twas a great show you guys put on... once again! Here's the permalink to the Locally Grown blog post with the video and album of several dozen photos. I've linked to this post in a comment on that post.